by NVR2L8 23 Replies latest jw friends
My pioneer friend who's been fighting cancer on and off for the last decade was allowed to stay on the list even though he couldn't get the hours. Taking him off it would break his heart because being a pioneer is his whole life.
But I've known old ladies who've needed assistance and were visibly suffering on the territory still forcing themselves along for the 'joy' of pioneering...I guess they couldn't break a decades long habit without being eaten up by guilt.
So sad.......
As Blondie showed. This isn't a new thing. My Dad was on the infirm list before he died.
This is meant to keep the pioneer numbers artificially up.
106 eh?
Most people are DEAD by the time they'd be 106.
So now you should feel guilty about lazing in your coffin when you could be pioneering & selling the rags.
Is simply being a certain age the qualifier for reduced hours, or do you have to be infirm ? if so, do they test them to see if they are really infirm ? Push 'em over or something ?
Since sisters can't be elders or MS, the only title they can have is Pioneer.
Bangalore
I was forced to reg pio, and I never once made my hrs (90 at that time). They kept me on the books IIRC about a year. They even kept me on the books after I stopped attending meetings for a few months. I was forced to meet with them (physically abusive parent and no resources to move out) and I told the elders point blank I was never coming back. They didn't take me off the books until I gave her my pio ID card to give to them!
My guess is it looks better for the elders if they have more pios.
Some of these quotes triggered a memory of an article I read years ago in a Watchtower or Awake about some missionary in a jungle somewhere who risked all sorts of hazards to do his witnessing. One time he was savagely beaten and commented, "I can only thank Jehovah for his undeserved kindness."
I remember being very discouraged by this because I thought there was no way I could ever attain to such devotion. Instead of being a great example to emulate, it made me quit before I got stated. Looking back on it, that article may be one reason I never got baptized into the borg.
The basic message is this. If we have the experience of a 106 year old, cancer patients, people crossing mountain ranges, snake and crocadile infested swamps, military martial law checkpoints etc to get to meetings or pioneer... THEN YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO VALID EXCUSE NOT TO YOURSELF!! If the excuse is you are too old, then Im sure you arent over 106 are you? Sick? Not worse than a cancer patient are you? Long distance? Not longer than a journey through a dangerous swamp is it? There are no excuses.
Whatever happened to "my yoke is kindly and my load is light?"
